


Home

by percyinpanties



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-05-01
Updated: 2017-05-01
Packaged: 2018-10-26 09:35:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10784178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/percyinpanties/pseuds/percyinpanties
Summary: How do you find home, away from home?





	Home

**Author's Note:**

> mini patreon fic about Lance, let me know if you'd like to see this continued.

Just a quick stop, Coran had said, some repairs and then they’d be gone before any native inhabitants of the planet would notice their presence. Allura had found a good spot hidden in a valley below a mountain range, far out of sight of any intelligent life forms that might inhabit this planet, where they are to stay aboard the ship until Coran has finished all the tedious repairs that cannot be done while they are vulnerable out in the galaxies. 

Time passes, and Lance is bored out of his mind. It’s been roughly three earth hours now since the castle ship has set down, and Lance understands this is a crucial stop but even so, he still wishes they were out in space where there would be something for him to do. Other than sit around and watch time pass – he’s done enough of that for a life time.

Pidge and Hunk are hanging around Coran, tinkering with the ship more than they are actually helping, but even so Lance knows he isn’t of any use there. When he’d been looking over their shoulders earlier, making a few smart-ass comments about the little things he actually knows about engineering, all he’d gotten in return is eye rolls and annoyed glances. 

He’d taken his leave not long after. Despite all his talking, he didn’t really want to be a bother while they were actually helping getting the ship back in good shape.

Allura is nowhere to be found. Lance knows the castle ship is vast and filled with more resources and rooms than his mind can properly comprehend, but even so he’d thought that he’d stumble upon _something_ interesting wandering around, or at least find the princess during his exploration. Wandering empty halls gets boring soon, too, especially since none of the doors will open for him while Coran has set the system to maintenance mode.

In the communal area, Lance finds Shiro and Keith sitting across from each other, a game set up between them that bears eerie resemblance to earth chess.  The board seems larger, the figurines are clearly more resembling of aliens than earthlings, but even so… 

Lance stays at a distance. Shiro and Keith are talking, animatedly but quietly, laughing about jokes probably only the two of them understand. A nasty little part of Lance’s mind seethes with jealousy at the sight of them, at the knowledge of never being able to have a bond like they do, but the small voice quickly drowns in Lance’s other thoughts. He doesn’t like dwelling on envy, it has never boded well for him in the past.

Without making his presence known, Lance turns away again. Regardless of them all growing closer, he doubts he’s welcome to interrupt their private time.

There’s not much to do on a ship that’s powered down. Especially not all on your own.

The sensible reaction to this would have to go train, or work out, maybe explore what little of the castle was accessible during Coran’s maintenance.  Lance doesn’t feel like being sensible today.

What he does instead is sneak up to the ship’s control panels to scan the planet they’d landed on. When they’d touched down earlier, Lance had gotten a glimpse of the planet through the castle’s large outer observatory windows. It looks a lot like earth, like home, and a thought that had been playing at the back of Lance’s mind the entire day is now forcing its way to the foreground: _He wants to see it for himself_.

The other paladins will undoubtedly roll their eyes at him once they find out later, but Lance finds he can’t resist the temptation even so. If he’s smart about it, they might not even notice his absence.  Lance wants a taste of home, and this is the closest he has gotten in a long time.

The scans quickly tell him that the atmosphere is hospitable: a slightly higher oxygen percentage than on earth, but nothing toxic in the air that’d burn Lance’s lungs as soon as he’d try breathing it in. The flora and fauna seem harmless enough: no deep jungles, no packs of roaming predators, no big flesh-eating flowers that the ship’s sensors pick up on. If there are intelligent life forms, or any kind of civilisation, it is not on this side of the planet, not on the side the ship’s sensors reach.

It’s a perfectly inviting planet, a second earth just without all the people, in a way. It may not be the same, but it is better than nothing.

Lance knows he shouldn’t… 

But he wants to.

Pen and paper is quickly found, a note scribbled and stuck to the side of the control pad:

_BRB, gone for a walk. I’ll be safe don’t worry._

He signs his name, then considers drawing a sunglasses emoji, too. He settles for a little wink, then drops the pen before he wastes even more time. The others may all be preoccupied now, but he’d rather not have them come back and find his note before he’d even gotten off of the ship. 

Lance, in contrast to popular opinion (popular opinion meaning mostly Keith’s), isn’t a complete idiot. On his way to one of the manual exits, he grabs his paladin helmet and bayard. Just in case there are packs of roaming predators or flesh-eating flowers that the ship’s scans hadn’t picked up on. He hides his bayard safely in a pocket on the inside of his jacket, and tugs his helmet under his arm – no one will be able to say he hasn’t left prepared.

With the ship mostly disabled, opening one of the manual airlocks won’t sound an alarm – before anyone can even grow suspicious, Lance has slipped out. 

Lance’s feet hit the ground with a dull thud, dust rising in small clouds from the impact. The air is warm, but dry, and Lance half regrets bringing his jacket at all. He stays to the shadows as he slipped further and further away from the ship, trying to bring some ground between himself and the view out of the large castle windows.  
The flora isn’t very thick here, but it should be enough to hide him from anyone who isn’t directly looking _for_ him. The trees look like Halloween store versions of palm trees: tall and gnarly, with few long leaves crowing the top. Lance thinks he spots large, bright purple fruit up in the trees too, but he knows how quickly picking one of those can turn out bad for him.

Making his way through the low bushes, Lance takes a first deep breath. The air is fresh, smells clean and crisp. There is a hint of salt there, too, Lance can taste it as he licked his lips.

It’s enough to make him ache inside. The similarity of this place to his old family home, back in Cuba, hits harder than he expected. He’s been yearning for something that feels like home for a weeks and months, and while this is the closest he’s gotten, it doesn’t give him the relief he’d hoped for.

They hadn’t lived far off from the beach back then, and as a boy Lance would always sneak out in the mornings and evening to watch the sun set and rise over the sea. The memory is painful, but just like that Lance is overcome with a sudden need to find it the sea here too: if he can smell it, taste it, the water can’t be that far away. Maybe that is what he needs to soothe the pain in his chest.

His feet carry him over the dusty surface, past the trees and low bushes. He can hear waves crashing on a shore and excitement courses through his veines. _Not much farther now._

In front of Lance’s eyes, the tree line partes and Lance feels like the breath has been knocked out of him.

The view is absolutely stunning. The beach, in Lance’s opinion, is the best part. Inches from his toes, the ground falls into a cliff. The sand has a pink hue, which in turn makes the sea beyond look almost purple. Above, twin stars illuminate the sky. The mountains are visible again without the trees now too, stretching along either side on the horizon. It looks almost exactly like the beach Lance remembers from the town he’s grown up in, but someone has turned up the saturation of the colours.

For the first minute, Lance only stares. He is mesmerized that he hardly remembers to breathe.

Lance’s helmet hits the ground with a clunk, his jacket follows close behind. He doesn’t think about the dangers of leaving his communication and bayard behind, the sea is calling to him. In a somewhat reckless move, he jumps down the ledge. The cliff isn’t too steep, so Lance easily skids down, finally hitting the sand at its end. 

Any thought of just a quick walk forgotten, Lance takes off his shoes and socks, feeling the soft sand underneath his bare soles. He wiggles his toes and giggles. The sun warms his skin, the breeze tousles his hair and he feels more at home than he has at any other place since leaving earth.

For a moment, he feels nothing but truly happy. 

**Author's Note:**

> come yell at me on [tumblr](http://percyinpanties.tumblr.com) or in the comments down below.


End file.
